Nicholls was speaking about the abuse of power allegations piling up at the prime minister’s door. Together they could seal the deal for an election call this spring. Conservative and Liberal sources say Harper may well want to go to the polls before the government’s reputation is damaged.

Conservatives have survived the Bev Oda controversy well enough. But now his top political operatives face criminal charges. And there’s the news, which could erupt into a full-blown controversy, of his integrity commissioner sweeping aside 227 whistleblowing charges of wrongdoing. She is due before a parliamentary committee next week.

The Afghan detainees affair — a controversy that dogged the Conservatives for years — may also be back in the headlines. Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe threatened this week to withdraw from the committee examining the controversy unless the government turns over sensitive documents related to it.

Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff is paying close attention. Harper’s character will be a central focus of a Liberal campaign, he said in an interview earlier this week.

The assumption has been that Harper will not call an election unless his budget, to be tabled March 22, is voted down by the opposition parties. With the emerging controversies, he may be tempted to put a poison pill in the budget — a measure, or measures, that opposition parties cannot possibly support. If not that, the PM may find some other rationale for marching to the Governor-General to force an election. He’s done it before. In the late summer of 2008, he announced he did not have sufficient support from the opposition parties for his legislative program and, breaking his pledge of fixed-election dates, proceeded to drop the writ.

Another potential danger spot for the Conservatives is the coming report — the date is not yet known — of the Auditor-General’s report on the government’s stimulus program. The program has served as a major boasting point in the Conservatives’ economic record, a record it wants to make the focus of any campaign. The Auditor-General may be less enthusiastic. At one point, the Conservatives got caught putting Tory logos on stimulus cheques that were funded out of taxpayers’ pockets. They also were found, according to research done by journalists, to have favoured their own Conservative ridings in doling out the stimulus money.

Though his government has been caught in many ethics violations, Prime Minister Harper boasted recently that his Conservatives have been scandal free. The charges laid in connection with what is called the in-and-out affair pose a strong challenge to that boast.

Rarely, if ever, have criminal charges reached as high as a prime minister’s campaign director, as they have in the case of Senator Doug Finley. The scheme saw money authorized for use in local Tory riding campaigns transferred quietly for use in other markets in apparent contravention of Election Canada regulations.

The money shuffle allowed the Conservatives to spend an extra $1-million on advertising in the campaign that other parties could not. The spending could have influenced outcomes in closely contested ridings. The in-and- out shuffle came at the same time the Conservatives were campaigning on a promise of a new era of accountabililty and transparency in federal politics.

Harper’s long history of warring with Elections Canada dates to his tenure as head of the National Citizens Coalition. Nicholls was in his employ at that time. Harper was known for micromanaging political files. However, Senator Finley said earlier this week that it’s ridiculous to suggest Harper was personally behind the in-and-out scheme.

Next week, attention will turn to Christiane Ouimet. Opposition parties are out to prove she was pressured to sweep under the rug allegations of wrongdoing that could have embarrassed the government.

Pollsters are uncertain as to how much ethics violations and allegations of authoritarian behaviour may have hurt the PM’s image in the past. It is clear the promises of a new era of openness and accountability were never heeded.

The issue helped the Conservatives win the election in 2006. It could serve to dampen their prospects of a big win this time.